Quotes (9/26): Coughlin, Gilbride, Boothe

Giants.com brings you exclusive access to the locker room with quotes from Giants players

Coach Tom Coughlin

Q: Baas and Snee weren’t out there today.A: No. They’re trying like heck to get better and they’ve been kept inside.

Q: Is Jacquian not making the type of progress you were looking for?A: Supposedly he’s going to be able to practice tomorrow.

Q: Are you still cycling through some options if Snee and Baas can’t go?A: Yes.

Q: How did David Diehl look?A: He’s doing well. He’s had two days of practice now. He’s enthusiastic, trying to help as best he can.

Q: Do you think he might be able to play Sunday?A: I don’t know about that just yet.

Q: Have you heard anything about Corey Webster?A: Not since yesterday. What about him?

Q: You seemed to think that he might practice today.A: I did think he might make it today, but that’s not the case.

Q: How do you go about getting the young offensive linemen ready?A: Practice, just like you’re seeing. They’ve got to take all the reps. They’ve got to take everything they can. Even the jog-throughs are critical. It’s obviously not full speed, but they have to take everything they possibly can, try to see everything they possibly can and then get them to play full-speed and not just sit there and be looking around at what they expect. The only thing you can do is accelerate the practice time and put them out there and that’s what we’re doing.

Q: Is there a more difficult environment for a young offensive lineman than playing at Kansas City?A: It will be loud. It will be very loud. They’ve had success, so the crowd will really be into it. But it’s a good experience for them.

Q: What’s so good about the Chiefs pass rush?A: They do a lot of things and they do have a number of people who have successfully rushed the passer and their pressure game is good. They have some people that come down from the secondary and can rush the passer as well. They have a number of people that you have to account for.

Q: Is John Conner going to be ready by Sunday?A: We’ll see. We’re certainly fast-feeding him. If we can get him ready, it will be really in a limited sequence, but that would be good enough if he can help.

Offensive Coordinator Kevin Gilbride

Q: What makes the Kansas City defense so difficult to deal with?A: They’ve got a lot of talented athletes. There’s no question about that and I think you combine that with a very confusing scheme. They do a nice job of creating overload blitzes where they give you an impression they’re coming from one side when in fact they’re coming from the other and I think that combination along with the skill of the guys that are actually rushing the quarterback makes it very, very difficult.

Q: What can you do to get your young offensive line ready for those challenges?A: We’re working like crazy and they are, too, so you’re just trying to advance them along as rapidly as you can and that you hopefully expedited the process that will advance at a point where we go out and play well. I expect them to play well. I expect them to do well. They’re working at it and we have confidence in their athleticism. It’s just a matter of how fast you can get them acclimated to the speed with which they’re going to be facing the opposition on Sunday, which is significant. Sometimes you face some secondary guys when they rush from the secondary, they will come and then they see a big lineman and they pull off. Well these guys are not like that. They’re very confident in their ability to escape or evade the line and they do a terrific job.

Q: How close is this to what the Jets did when Bob Sutton was over there?A: Yeah. There are a lot of similarities. It’s funny. When you get a system, everybody’s personality influences the final expression of what that offensive or defensive scheme might be, but there’s no question it’s rooted in that system. Just like the Jets, they do a terrific job of going to some odd spacing and give you some unusual, exotic blitzes and blitz packages. If you’re not on your toes, they can make life difficult for you.

Q: Are you having to experiment with different combinations along the line because you don’t know who you’re going to have?A: Seemingly we’ve been doing that all year, so it’s not a departure from what’s been going on. Even when we’ve had guys, they’ve been injured and not playing the full allotment of practice time. It’s something you wish you weren’t as familiar with as we are, but we’ve been doing it all along. I guess down the road it will be good for us, but right now it does unquestionably slow down your progress.

Q: Do you have any idea of what you can expect from David Diehl in terms of his involvement?A: We don’t. We’re waiting with bated breath to see what the training staff tells us.

Q: With the offense struggling last week, are you thinking about trying to switch it up or maybe go to a little hurry-up offense?A: We went into this game thinking that we needed to be more balance because of the turnovers and that wasn’t as successful as we would’ve liked it to be. That first half was probably about as low as you can be. We went to the two-minute and we moved the ball, but we still didn’t put any points on the board. We’ll try to do whatever we can to galvanize this group and give them a chance and the big thing is can you intellectually handle the scheme, the schematic challenges that are inherent in their defensive approach, which is quite significant.

Q: They do a lot of things with Eric Berry. Is there any other defense that uses a strong safety like they do him?A: There are a lot of teams that bring the safety when they’re in base. He’s a safety and then when you go to a nickel package or a dime package and bring him and he’s actually a part of the underneath scheme. I would say the thing that’s a little bit different that probably distinguishes them from other people is that they blitz him like crazy. He’s one of the two guys that I’m referring to that’s a secondary guy that just because a lineman slides out or a back slides out… Sometimes you face guys and they go ‘OK, I’m blocked’ and they kind of sit and pitter patter their feet. He thinks he’s going to win and unfortunately he has been winning. So we’ve got to do a great job. He’s terrific. He does a great job and he’s a good cover guy as well.

Q: Is this as difficult as a stretch for you as it’s been around here?A: There’s no question. We went through a tough time our first year here when we made the decision to depart the Kurt Warner era and go into the Eli Manning era. You understood there was going to be some growth and some growing pains and there were. Now it’s not the quarterback position, but it’s some other spots, in the backs and in the line, you’re going through some growing pains as well. It’s never pleasant, but the good thing is we’re working at it and I think no one has quit and they’ve hung together. They’re doing all of those things right and you hope it pays off.

Q: Is there anything you can do to help this offensive line? Maybe some quick hits?A: That’s what we did, like the traps that we hit last time, those were the big runs we had. You try to do some things like that to give yourself a scheme when you’re not just able to line up and knock people off the ball. You try to give illusions of one thing and, in fact, come back and do something different. That’s what we did. You can only do that so many times. You’re not going to do that 60 plays a game. You’re not going to fool them 60 plays a game. You need to execute and that’s where we have to upgrade.

Q: When you looked at Kansas City in the offseason, you had an idea of what you’re going to do. Does what happened last week cause you to re-evaluate what you might have wanted to do ?A: I’m not sure we did know how much of a carryover there was going to be with Bob Sutton coming from the Jets. We surmised or guessed or speculated that there would be a great carryover. There certainly is, but you didn’t know until you actually saw it play out on the field. Secondly, the game is about adjusting and again, we went into last week, we want to be balanced and try to run it and get our play-action passes going and that was not to be had. This week you have to say, what can we do? That’s part of our jobs as coaches. We have to challenge them to improve their technique, improve their knowledge and scheme, but it’s up to us to try to put them in positions where they have a chance to be successful. That’s what you’re constantly doing. Are you adjusting? Yes, no question.

Q: Would you like to get Hakeem more involved?A: I’d like to get them all involved. Whoever can get open, we’d love to have them get open and throw them the ball and catch it. There’s no question you’re a better team when all of your players are making plays for you.

Q: Is there any concern that this offense has kind of come to rely too much on the big play and personnel-wise you guys can’t grind out those 15-play, 80-yard drives?A: We’ve had some guys who are able to make big plays, but I think in the long run you’ve got to be able to do the latter as well. You don’t have to do it necessarily running the ball. You can do it with short passes and mix in some screens and do those things, which we’ve tried to do. Just last week, we were kind of overwhelmed. No matter what we tried to do, we couldn’t get on track, we couldn’t get started. The previous weeks, I think we came away saying we have a decent team here, we can do some things, we just need to slow down the turnovers. This past week, this was a different type of game. We were outplayed and we’re disappointed with the way we played and we thought, we knew, they certainly had a quality front and we would be challenged by it, but we thought we would do better than we did. There’s no question about that.

Defensive Coordinator Perry Fewell

Q: Where do you start after 38-0?A: You go back to work. That’s what you’ve got to do. There are games of adversity with wins and losses. You go back to work, whether you win or whether you lose. You stick to your guns and you go back to the fundamentals.

Q: Do you feel like you were getting good pressure on Cam Newton early on?A: We did early in the ball game. We tried to throughout the football game.

Q: Is this as tough a stretch as you’ve had?A: We’ve had some tough stretches. Right now, as a team, we’re not playing good team football so it’s tougher that way. We normally complement each other and when we start complementing each other, the offense, defense and special teams, then we’ll play better football.

Q: How have you felt about your linebacker play through these first three games?A: We’ve had some good moments and we’ve had some not good moments. That’s the ebb and flow of the game. Would I say it’s outstanding? No. Would I say it’s poor? No. We’ve just been in the middle of the road and we can play better. We’re going to try to play better. We’re working to play better. They’re all working to play better.

Q: JPP said he’s moving a lot better. What did you observe from him this week?A: Over the last couple of weeks I’ve observed that he’s getting in better condition and that’s a testament to guys talking about preseason games and why do you play preseason games, etcetera. This is his third contest and so you can see his conditioning level get better and better. He’s taking more reps in practice each day and so he’s starting to get into his groove a little bit. So I’ve seen him improve each day and just listening and hearing defenses called and executing the defensive calls without having to think so much in these last three weeks. He’s getting more comfortable as a football player again.

Q: Is the idea of being physical as simple as it sounds or are there things that you’re looking for from the guys to play more physical?A: Physical is a mentality and then it’s an action. Obviously the mentality is to be a physical football team. Then you have to put it in the action and you have to believe that. That’s what we’re working towards.

Q: Is it harder to do on your side of the ball now with all the rules that are in place?A: I’m never going to say no. Defensively, you have to have that mentality. Whether they call the penalty or not, you have to try to play cleaner football than we have in the past. Or the things in the past that we thought were great hits or good hits, it’s now a safety issue. You can still be physical and play football, I believe.

Q: What do you see from Kansas City that makes them so hard to get the ball away from? A: I think the quarterback is doing an excellent job of taking what the defense gives him. I think they do a good job of running the football and he doesn’t feel pressured into making bad decisions. He has a good, strong run game. Jamaal Charles is really doing a great job in that respect. Jamaal Charles is involved in the pass game, too, and so he is able to spread the ball around and not feel pressured.

Q: And he’ll just run it. It doesn’t look like he wants to take any chances.A: I totally agree with you. He will pull the ball down and run it, so he’s got five options, plus his legs, and he’s always been a good guy with his legs. That gives him the sixth option as far as the weapons that they have.

Q: You’ve played him a couple of times before when he was in San Francisco in recent years. Does it help planning-wise for this?A: It does. It does help a little bit. You have some knowledge of the player. He had good skill there in San Francisco also. You’re hoping that you can force him to make some bad decisions.

Q: When you evaluate the pass rush, which is not up to Giants’ standards in terms of getting to the quarterback, do you think to yourself when Jason Pierre-Paul is full strength, things will look different? Is it as simple as him getting back to where he needs to be?A: I look at it as a whole. I don’t look at it just as Jason. I think we can do some things secondary-wise to help our pass rush. I think we can do some things linebacker-wise to help our pass rush. I think we can do some things down-and-distance-wise, to help our pass rush, being more successful in first and second down. I look at it as a whole. The whole group is really involved in that and it’s not just one person or two people, or three people.

Q: Is Damontre Moore just not ready for a bigger role yet, in terms of him maybe energizing the pass rush?A: I think his absence with his preseason injury put him behind a little bit. We’re trying to slowly integrate him back into the fold. When I say ‘slowly integrate,’ we’re trying to get him more reps in practice, so he understands the calls, so he knows exactly what we’re doing. We’re trying to bring him back to the fold to help us in that respect. Yes.

Q: Has Allen Bradford gotten to a point with the playbook where he can have an impact defensively?A: I wouldn’t say an impact. He’s gotten to the point where we’re ready to play him. An impact as a starter or anything like that, we’re not quite there yet.

Q: And that’s just strictly playbook-related?A: When you say playbook, we can simplify things, but the linebackers make calls. When they make calls and they have voices, you have to have confidence in what you say and how you set the front and how you set the pressure, or what have you. That’s just a work in progress for him because he’s only been here for two weeks, maybe. That’s just a confidence thing of understanding exactly how to set it and what we’re looking for.

Q: How exotic and intricate can you guys get in the secondary. How much have you been limited by not having Stevie Brown?A: I feel like Mundy has done a great job of stepping in and fulfilling that role. We’ve been executing our plays, haven’t given up any mental busts. Of course we miss Stevie, but Mundy has done a tremendous job for us.

Q: It looks like you may have to start again, if Corey can’t go?A: Like I said, I prepare every week as if I’m a starter, so if Corey can’t go this week, I’ll be ready and willing to go for the team again.

Q: Did you think the interception last week was going to be a spark that came early enough in the game? Things like that?A: I’m really not sure. We try to make plays when we can make them. If we can help the offense out at all, getting interceptions is definitely a start. Of course we wish we could have scored off of that, or anything, but it’s our job to go out there and stop the offense. That’s the main thing we focus on as a defense.

Q: You got your jersey pulled. If not for that could you have …?A: I wish I could have knocked his hand down, but he had a pretty firm grip on me. I didn’t want him to actually knock the ball out of my hands. I kind of got as much as I could and got out of bounds.

Q: In college you used to have tear-away jerseys, right?A: Yeah. I wish I had one on Sunday.

Q: It seems like there might be a little more shuffling this week. I know that’s something you’re used to.A: I don’t know. Whatever happens happens. I know that Dave (Baas) and Chris (Snee) are going to work hard to try to be out there. I wouldn’t count them out unless we’re told otherwise. It wouldn’t surprise me to see them out there.

Q: A couple years ago you were in the same position as Mosley, Brewer, Cordle, coming off the bench. What’s the hardest part of suddenly getting a ton of snaps when you weren’t getting many before?A: I think a certain aspect of learning is on the job. You have to see things in a game. You can go over it on the board or in practice but until you actually get out there and do it you can’t fully grasp it. They’ve all worked hard, that’s the way that we always do it with the offensive line, we work a bunch of different combinations. You always have to prepare as if you’re going to be in after a play. I know those guys have that mindset so whatever happens will happen this week.

Q: It’s a tough place to learn on the job though.A: Sure. I think whenever you go on the road it adds a different dynamic to it. Obviously they’re playing very well and they’re a very talented team so it should be fun.

Q: Fairly or unfairly, after last week do you feel like you guys have, not a target on your back but teams might look at you guys a little differently?A: I don’t see what’s unfair about it. Everybody’s trying to win the game. You have to do whatever you can to win. Obviously we have to play better as an offense, as an offensive line, sure. And we plan on doing that.

Q: How difficult is it to replicate the speed of the game when you’re not getting a lot of first-team snaps?A: You just have to work hard. I think our defense, our scout team, does a great job. They go hard during practice. We’re getting a lot of good looks out there and you just have to have it translate to Sunday.

Q: I’d imagine when the first unit’s together you guys can almost anticipate what each other will be doing. Is that something that you would lose with new bodies?A: I don’t think you would lose it. We’re all working together throughout the course of training camp and everything, so it’s not like it’s a completely new person that I’ve never talked to or seen before. We’ve played next to each other before. Sure there are things that might have to be a little bit more verbal than with some of the other guys but that’s fine. It’s not a problem

Q: One of the body parts that you had injured last year, I think you had neck issues…A: Two years ago.

Q: Is it the same thing or is it a new…A: It’s a lot of the same things, but obviously, like I said, I’ve got to keep it kind of vague. They don’t want me revealing a whole lot. But it’s something that I definitely don’t want to mess with too much because, obviously, if I do, it’s going to keep me out for a really long time. We’re just doing whatever we can right now to get it right and we’ll go from there.

Q: The reason I ask is a lot of times people have recurring things that lead to surgery. I didn’t know if that was something that you had to ponder.A: No, I’m not thinking about that right now. Obviously that’s something that’s a medical issue that I hope I don’t have to get to. Right now it’s trying to get it better. The only problem is that this stuff takes a little time. It’s frustrating, obviously, because, with the position that we’re in right now when we’re in desperate need of a win, the only thing you can think of is being out there and trying to get that done. But it’s, like I said, it’s a part of football, it’s a part of life, I can’t sit here and be miserable because it is what it is. I just have to try and get better.

Q: What about what you can do to help some of these younger guys to get ready?A: Yeah, I feel like mentally is a big key for them. A lot of the guys, they understand what’s going on out there but communication is going to be huge because, regardless of what the lineup is, they’re going to have to be able to talk out there. Kansas City does a lot of different things that the Jets would do to us, a lot of confusing, try to confuse you kind of looks, and if you play into that, it’s going to be… people aren’t going to be on the same page. I feel like that’s the biggest thing. As long as they go out there and are on the same page and they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing, then I feel like they can have a good day. Like I said, I don’t know that the lineup will be but as long as they’re working together… that’s key for an offensive line. You’ve got to be able to work together. All of the guys. It doesn’t matter how good one or two players play, if the whole line can’t play at a high level, then it’s not going to be a good day. Obviously we’ve seen that. It’s time to go out there and show them what we can do, regardless of who’s in there.

Q: You mentioned that you obviously don’t want to do anything that would cause it to be a long-term thing. What is the short-term in your mind?A: I think it’s something that I can manage, not the best plan that I want but we managed it two years ago. I won’t go into the details of that but, for me, I want to be out there on the field, so I’m going to do whatever I can to get back out there, in a smart way without, like we said, having to go with one of those other options.

Q: With Chris Snee and David Baas still out battling injuries and lots of change on the line because of that…A: I mean, this is a game. It’s the hand that we were dealt for this week and, being a player, whoever’s out there beside you, you have to make the best of it. I know I had problems in last week’s game that I have to clean up, so my main concern is me and how I react the next game.

Q: I know it’s the next guy having to step up, but is everybody as ready as everybody else?A: Everyone’s going to have to be. You don’t have any choice in the NFL. You’re called to go, you’ve got to go. For them, I pray that everyone’s mind is set, that we don’t look at the negative in the past and allow it to affect our future. So everyone’s trying to keep a positive attitude knowing that we made mistakes, costly mistakes that cost us games. But knowing that, just because we made those mistakes, we don’t have to move forward and make them. Trying to keep that positive attitude is still one game, one week, let’s take care of this.

Q: What can you do to help the younger guys?A: Being a tackle, what I can do is locking down my position, making sure that my position is not a problem, making sure that Eli has time to throw from my stance, my point of view, that left side. It’s just doing your job, doing what you can do, that helps a lot in cleaning up the overall problem, whatever that may be. As the media, you have more opinions and comments than I do as a player, but I know if you win a game, you take that bad taste out of your mouth and you move forward. We’re looking to getting that taste out of our mouth.

Q: You mentioned you’re concerned about cleaning up your things, do you feel confident that you’ve done that?A: I always feel confident. I didn’t not feel confident last game; it’s just that it wasn’t my best performance, by far. I just have to make sure that I don’t show that performance again. I know I can do better, the defense knows that I can do better. Everyone knows that that wasn’t me, so no matter what’s going on, it’s just trying to look at the smaller picture. Take care of yourself and the bigger picture is going to come together.

Q: The guys who might be filling in, Cordle and Brewer, they don’t have a lot of experience but they’ve been around for a while.A: They’ve been around, they’ve been around this team, they’ve played games before in the past, so they know what it takes, they know how to play, it’s not that you’re putting in someone who hasn’t played before. That’s not a question; it’s just making sure that they have the confidence that… I mean, it’s a big opportunity for them to show that they can be starters in the National Football League. It’s not a bad thing for them that they’re out there playing. This is what they want, I know they want to play and I know they want to be out there. Everyone wants to be out there. It’s that opportunity that we have to take advantage of. We have to show our team, we have to show our defense, we have to show Kansas City that just because they’re out there, it’s not that we can’t do this. Now is not the time for us to make any excuses, by far. We showed bad things on the film and you know that. That’s probably why you all are here right now. We can’t make excuses, we have to go out there with a positive attitude. We’re still blessed to be able to play this game, to be healthy enough to go out there and just give all we have.